Leaders Among Us: Leadership Appraisal of Baccalaureate Nursing Students

In today’s fast-paced and technology-driven health care settings, the need for nurse leaders remains a critical demand. Stemming in part because of the Affordable Care Act, health care institutions now face multiple leadership challenges, such as reductions in full-time registered nursing positions, decreased job satisfaction among staff, increased turnover rates, fragmentation of health care team relationships, and negative effects on nurses’ physical and psychological well-being (Miskelly & Duncan, 2014; Yost, 2014). In an effort to combat such challenges while also striving to provide the best quality care to patients, nurses frequently find themselves serving in formal leadership roles without actual formal leadership training (Kerfoot, 2008; Yost, 2014). Instead, an expectation exists for nurses to learn quickly leadership skills, often through trial-and-error experiences, which at times can equate to failure for new nurse leaders (Swearingen, 2009).

            Not all nurses begin their career with thoughts of becoming a leader yet many find themselves serving in leadership roles without much formalized planning or preparation. The development of such competency and skill is not something that can be taught in a single, one-time occurrence, but rather are abilities that ebb and flow through an ongoing basis, often though practice and successful experience of leading one’s self, others, and organizations (Yost, 2014). Several postgraduate courses do exist that pertain to the development of leadership and management skills, however it is noted that most of these programs target nurses who already hold management or leadership positions (Miskelly & Duncan, 2014). The purpose of this study is to assess a baseline level of leadership competency and skill of students enrolled in a traditional baccalaureate nursing program, and to determine if that baseline level is affected over time by students’ clinical experiences. An understanding of these findings may assist nurse educators in determining if a need exists for more formalized leadership training at the undergraduate level.